Spiny, tough and menacing, the cacti seem peculiar choices as culinary delights. Cacti are well known novelties among potted plant collectors and gardeners, and some cacti, such as nopales (the stems of prickly pears) and tunas (cactus fruits) have recently gained popularity as a healthy foods outside of Mexico. However, the cactus is nothing new in the Mexican diet, […]
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Flowers and flower arranging have played an important role in Mexico from ancient times to the present. The symbolic meaning of flowers is prominent throughout ancient Mesoamerican thought and practice. Flowers could represent anything from beauty and creation to death and destruction. Tlacaelel, a councilor to Moctezuma I (1440-1469), initiated a mystical warrior vision of […]
Continue ReadingDuring the Mexican dry season, a peculiar and very distinctive leafless tree often attracts attention because it appears to have large balls of fluffy cotton-wool attached to the ends of its branches. These kapok or silk-cotton trees belong to the Bombax family, Bombacaceae, which includes many fascinating, handsome and much admired trees. They played a […]
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“Here is a contribution of the unforgettable Maya Indians, whom we have abandoned,” is the wistful introduction to a pamphlet on the chaya plant, from Desarollo Integral de la Familia (DIF), which goes on to call chaya “an ideal food and medicine.” According to the National Institute of Nutrition in Mexico City, ingesting chaya will: […]
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Scientists first explored El Pico de Orizaba, Mexico’s highest peak, as long ago as 1838. El Pico de Orizaba, or Citlaltépetl (= star), is Mexico’s highest peak, with a summit 5,746 meters (18,853 feet) above sea level. The third highest peak in North America, it is also that region’s highest volcano, responsible for major eruptions […]
Continue ReadingOrganic farming has helped some indigenous peoples in Mexico to reinvent themselves. How many people are there? According to INEGI figures, about six million Mexicans over the age of five speak at least one indigenous language. Another three million Mexicans consider themselves indigenous but no longer speak any indigenous language. How many indigenous towns or […]
Continue ReadingAgaves can be thought of as another chain of “7-Elevens”. The numerous members of the Agave family are all native to the New World. “Agave” is derived from the Greek word “agauos” (admirable). Agaves, the “admirable plants”, are the source of several commercial products, including tequila, the equally admirable national drink. Known as “magueys” in Spanish, the plants have […]
Continue ReadingAn earlier column described several Guinness records and their connection to Mexico and Mexicans. This month’s column examines four more very different Guinness records which do not involve quite as much physical activity. In movie images, Mexico is almost invariably associated with cacti and it should, therefore, come as no surprise to find that the […]
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A young Belgian botanist established a business exporting Mexican cacti to Europe back in the 1840s. Henri Guillaume Galeotti was born on September 10, 1814, in Paris. In early childhood, he moved, with his Milanese father, to Belgium, where he studied natural history at the Establissement Géographique de Brussels. This school had been founded in […]
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